Despite his roles in the Harry Potter series, Lemony Snicket and his occasional dips into horror or fantasy, Timothy Spall is not the first name we might have expected to be starring in a supernatural thriller based on a young adult property. But here he is, adding his name to the cast list for The Changeover.
Spall joins a mixture of established named (Melanie Lynskey, Lucy Lawless) and rising talent (Erana James, Stefania LaVie Owen, Jamie Curry) in the film, which Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt are gearing up to direct in New Zealand this August.
McKenzie adapted the script from Margaret Mahy's YA novel The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance. It follows 16-year-old Laura Chant, who discovers her supernatural abilities at first when she has to save her younger brother from an attack by an ancient spirit. Those ancient spirits, eh? Always causing trouble with the haunting and the scaring and the huge plot to rip reality asunder or pull kids into televisions...
Spall – his voice at least – is back on our screens on the 27th of this month in Alice Through The Looking Glass. He'a also played Ian Paisley in true-life Northern Ireland drama The Journey and is sticking with the real-life realm as controversial author David Irving in Denial.